AIBU to think supermarkets add wine to ready meals to make up for crap ingredients?

[user1487941567]

I never buy ready meals but I am so hot, pregnant and bothered today that I went to Tesco. Entire store fridge had been emptied except the £10 deal section so I quickly grabbed a lasagne and the other bits.

Get home and it's full of wine. I hate wine. My mum is in recovery so can't eat anything with wine in so it's not suitable for her either. I know people will say ooooh but it's such a small amount, you can't taste it. I can. My mum would be able to. And it's a filler to make up for shite meat.

I've seen it in bloody everything from pesto to filled pasta. Why? It's just masking the taste of everything else. Its as if supermarkets think adding crap wine to a dish of shite suddenly makes it higher quality and worthy of being in the £10 meal deal range. Why can't the put it on the front of the box clearly "lasagne with wine". Pesto with wine. Thai curry with wine. Soup with wine.

I've got to eat this horrible lasagne because I'm too hot to take it back. Grrrr!

And if people can't taste it, why are they putting it in!

I think they add salt and/or sugar in large quantities, but daresay people are starting to notice that, so now they are putting in cheap wine.

I'd agree.

Now that you mention it, I have had some not very nice ready meals in my time, (like you I only buy them in desperate times). I think they did have wine in them and I remember thinking some of them tasted too much like crap wine.

I have to say that I do put wine in my homemade lasagna though. Is that wrong? Pesto / tortellini with wine sounds quite strange though.

Because I don't like it, I look out for it. You would find it in the oddest of places. Always in Chinese ready meals which isn't such a suprise because I could always taste alcohol in black bean sauce but it's in stir fry sauces, salsa, dauphinois potatoes and food which you would never on this planet add wine. It can only be to make it appear more "luxury".

I was in such a rush I just never even checked. Although even if I had the shelves were empty so it was all they had!

And this lasagne takes 50 mins to cook, it's still in the oven. Overall (dear Tesco) a shit lasagne. I should have just bought mince and made one myself.

Wine is an ingredient in lasagne. It's a shame you don't like it but it's not much of a surprise if you buy a lasagne and find wine in it. I don't think they put it in as a cheap filler. It's likely the wine is more expensive than any of the other components so that doesn't make sense. Pregnancy is definitely a good time for macaroni cheese though ..try that next time, its usually one of the more reliable ready meals, and no wine on that!

Its not in pesto though.... or a Thai curry. I don't put wine in my lasagne and it's not usually in the cheaper ready meals which I was ideally looking for.

It was only small anyway so I've just given it to DH and am making myself a sausage sandwich. (White wine vinegar is in posh sausages too btw )

I don't actually think it's in there as a cheap filler. I think it's in there to fool people in to thinking they are eating something quality. When really it's a bowl of slop with some added plonk

All vinegar was originally wine though

That's what I mean. In some guise it's in everything. I don't eat vinegar either. I'm a supertaster.

The alcohol is cooked of when you cook it, so is safe for anyone to eat

Safe, yes. Nice, no.